Judas Priest’s Rob Halford: ‘They’ll Have to Drag Me Off That Stage’

Father time catches up with all of us, but some rockers are doing their best to hold him off as they continue their lengthy careers. During an interview with the Toronto Sun, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford was asked about his back surgery and if watching the health issues of his peers Tony Iommi, Lemmy and Bruce Dickinson has changed his perspective on the future.

"The determination kicks in even stronger when you’re faced with those challenges. I’ve seen ’em face to face. But like any difficulty with anybody in any walk of life, you just deal with it, don’t you? You just get on with it," says Halford. "Honestly, we only think about things like this when friends like you ask these questions; we never really go there with each other. We’re just a bunch of guys getting in the van and going to the next gig and playing. And they’ll have to drag me off that stage. Retirement isn’t in my vocabulary."

Indeed, Halford admitted that being off the road is not something he deals with well. "I’m getting kind of antsy now. I’m not a guy who likes to sit around and do nothing," says the singer. "But we did need the break. We’ve been — what is the expression? — firing on all cylinders for pretty much the past year. This tour kicked off last October. So, any breaks we’ve had have given me just about enough time to take a breather and get a little bit of rest. Right now, this is what I call the calm before the metal storm."

Judas Priest have begun mulling their next album, but Halford also has his own to-do list of things he'd like to accomplish. Among them is a blues album. He explains, "At the top of [my list] right now would be the blues album I’m aching to make, because that’s where I came from. That’s where my roots are as a singer. That’s the thing that really kicked it off for me before I even got into metal. So a blues album is hopefully on the horizon."